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Sarah Pavan and her new partner Melissa Humana caused a major upset with a win over the Olympic Champions Ludwig/Walkenhorst in the quaterfinals. Good thing they will not face any brazilians in the semis, they will face the Chech Duo Hermannova/Slukova later today.

Well as the Rio tournament has just come to an end I might as well share my thoughts...

For a 4* event it was a bit disappointing effort from the FIVB. The website live scoring was frequently missing/behind and at other times the whole website was down. It's also a shame that they only provide video coverage of the Final-4. Basic video coverage is available from online betting sites, so why not from the FIVB?

And the coverage they did provide. Well I'll use this screenshot as an example, not just a small spelling error of a complicated name, but adding five extra letters and hoping nobody would notice?!

Venue: Well either the venue was a little large, or the crowd was a little small. Either way the atmosphere seemed a little lacking.

But hey, for all the shortcomings and problems this is Beach Volleyball. I thoroughly enjoyed the games and getting used to the new partnerships.

I love this little clip of Slukova, The final point of the match, Delight, then despair, and finally disbelief, all compressed into a few seconds. Video Clip [41 seconds]

Just hope, they won't follow the path of Brink/Reckerman who were physically done after their London gold medal and had to end their careers (same coach, by the way ).

I hope they don't too! But would it have been worth it? Would you take one season full of gold medals, or five seasons full of bronze?

Well Porec is almost at an end now. I must say it has been very entertaining. Thunderstorms causing matches to be paused for an hour mid-play not being a highlight.

Play under the floodlights always looks spectacular. A packed crowd and a well-informed DJ also helped the atmosphere. Interesting that the colourful LED net which they trialled last year didn't make a return. Perhaps it affected gameplay too much?

Once again I will grumble at the onscreen graphics. Did nobody realise that Women's Semi-Final 1 and Semi-Final 2 has four different players so you can't use the same start sequence again?!

Finally, the women's final! Set 1 with a scoreline of 32 - 34. One of the highlights of the season so far.